Help & Advice Needed
 

New poster here though I've been reading the magazine for over a year now. I'm in need of some advice.....new to photography with not a great deal of money to spend I bought a Sony 200 in Sept 08. Really enjoying the SLR experience I then purchased a Sigma 70-300 lens the following Feb 09. Unfortunately this malfunctioned (made clicking noises and wouldn't focus in May 09.This was repaired by Sigma....Four months later in Set 09 the same problem and again Sigma carry out the repair....No problems then until Jan 10 when the same problem occurs to my standard Sony lens. I contact Sony who say they can't do a thing because the camera is out of guarantee. Disappointed I buy a new lens off the internet (not willing to pay the £114 quote to have lens fixed) then the next day the Sigma lens breaks again......I then contacted both Sigma and Sony the upshot being Sony said they will have a look at all my kit. Today I've heard back off them saying there is nothing wrong with the camera. With the Sigma lens now out of guarantee as well I now find myself with a load of kit that I can't use......What I want to know is.....Is this normal to have four lenses break within a year?....Any help in this matter would be appreciated.......Cheers

Certainly not normal. I know I've read somewhere about a problem where the Sony AF has damaged the mechanism of certain lenses but can't remember where or if it was only certain lenses involved - I'll have another look around later if a Sony user does'nt respond with the information. If both lenses have developed the problem it seems likely the camera is in some way involved. Lens malfunction to this degree is'nt as common as your experience seems to indicate. Might be worth getting all the facts and dates written down and contacting your local CAB or Trading Standards.

Sue, thank you so much for your quick and informative reply. I'll wait until I hear more from Sony because though they said they found nothing wrong they have sent it to another department for more testing. here is a copy of the email they sent me...

After my investigations into your enquiry, I can confirm that our Technical Department have examined your product. After their investigations they could find no fault with the body of the camera. However for further verification on the issue, they have forwarded your product to Sony Central Services for further testing and examination. When we receive further information we will be in contact with you.Thank you for your patience with regard to this matter.

I will get back and post on here any findings as soon as I hear anything. Once again thank you.

Another reply from Sony......

I am sorry it is only the body we can not find a fault with, using the equipment we have here, the Lens both had a fault, what we need to find out is if the body is over winding the mech on the lens, then why. I am not aware of Sigma lens being compatible with the DSLR range and i have asked the question , could this be causing problems with the body, that would result in the electronics being effected as far as the motor for focus, could this have enough power to over wind the lens, all these questions could not be answered here and therefore I have asked Pencoed to look into the issue.
Once I know the cause then I can ask you questions about use and setup, until then we are both in the dark as to where or why this is happening, I must admit I have never seen this before.

I replied back regarding the compatibility of Sigma lenses because I believed that it would be and this is the reply I received from the very helpful guy at Sony.....

Sony has not done any testing with Sigma products, although the Minolta line was taken on board, this is where the design and intellectual rights ends..
As there has been no testing, so without knowledge of there product we are unable to support its use, this may or may not have caused the issue with the Body and this is where I have asked the engineers to test, the way the lens works may be to the Minolta spec, or it may be slightly different.

This sounds strange to say the least. I've never heard of an issue with the A200 although there was a spate of Sigma lens stripping gears on the A700 which has a high torque motor.

Cheers

Mark